Those of us distraught by the turn suggested by Blackboard's patent announcement and suit against Desire2Learn can take heart from the following announcement from OpenAcademic:

"We are happy to announce the launch of the OpenAcademic project. This project is dedicated to integrating Elgg, Drupal, Moodle, and Mediawiki. All code developed under this project will be released back to the respective communities under an open source license, and it will be freely available to download and distribute."

Elgg, Drupal, and Moodle all have a role to play in providing tools for learning communities. The example outlined in this post illustrates one way these three applications can work together in an academic setting. At the outset, however, it needs to be stressed that this is one solution chosen from among many. These three applications can be used by different institutions in different ways in response to specific institutional needs.

Elgg is the creation of Ben Werdmuller and David Tosh. The concept behind the system is to develop a fully customizable learning landscape. To achieve this Elgg is a hybrid of weblogging, e-portfolios and social networking. It is hoped this combination of features will provide an engaging environment for learners to create their own learning space and then connect to others, forming online communities of learning.

Learning is not a solitary pursuit and we feel real strength can be achieved from the creation of learning communities. Students interacting with: peers, tutors, lecturers, resources etc. The sharing of knowledge, ideas and problems can help foster a sense of belonging and development.

There are two options to get an Elgg account. You can register for an individual account hosted by Elgg or you can take the system and install it on your own server. Elgg is an open source application.

It is hoped Elgg will be a fun, useful tool which gives learners the opportunity to find resources and people relevant to them, creating powerful communities of learning.

We would really appreciate all feedback and comments so we can continue to develop and improve the system. We would also appreciate details on your usage habits and features you would like to see added.

What is the purpose of Elgg?

Elgg has been developed to serve as a stand alone personal learning landscape or as a complimentary addition to existing learning environments. The emphasis with Elgg is very much on the learner. Elgg looks to give learners the means to control and own their own development and growth through the use of everyday web technologies.

Elgg's initial concept was as a different type of e-portfolio, developed to contrast most current e-portfolio systems which are nothing more than form filling exercises to satisfy institutional requirements.

However, as the system has grown and developed (thanks to huge user input) Elgg has morphed into what we have coined a personal learning landscape. This learning landscape provides learners with the ability to control their own learning through the creation of their own online learning communities (both formal and ad-hoc), connection to other learners and resources, reflective potential, information gathering and sharing.

The Sakai 2.1.1 release is now available. The spirit behind the 2.1.1 release is to make fixes to the 2.1.0 code base that has been proven in a production environment available to the community. This release offers a total of 71 bug fixes to the software. Of these fixes, 55 were issues unearthed in 2.1.0 since the release was cut and most notably 45% of all fixes applied to the Tests and Quizzes tool.

Sites moving from the 2.1.0 to 2.1.1 release will need to perform a small database conversion operation. The details of the steps necessary to upgrade are specified in the release notes.

The Open Source Portfolio Initiative (OSPI) is a community of individuals and organizations collaborating on the development of the leading non-proprietary, open source electronic portfolio software available.

The advantages of this approach speak for themselves. OSP is one of the best-designed content management system for education that I have seen. Its attention to the user interface means both convenience and high scalability for end users, and the integration with SAKAI connects portfolios to other aspects of online learning. These advantages place OSP far ahead of its competitors, including commercial proprietary software such as WebCT. Although some might disagree, I recommend it strongly to educators, as long as they have some computer competence already and technical help to assist them in setting up the system.

The Open University builds student online environment with Moodle and more The OU’s expertise in supported distance learning has always meant it being a leader in developing the best technology to support its students. Now, The Open University’s Learning and Teaching Office has started a new programme worth nearly £5 million to build a comprehensive online student learning environment for the 21st century.

The development, which will first appear in May of 2006, and be fully operational for February 2007 courses, will see the largest use of Moodle in the world. Moodle is a free, Open Source software package course management system used by educators to create effective online learning communities.

[It's only fitting that an 'open' educational institution would choose one of the leading libre software learning management systems. - Ed]

LAMS, the world's leading open source Learning Design system, today announced the release of a new version of the software - V1.0.2. Complementing this release are three LMS integrations, a suite of new services and support contracts from LAMS International, and the announcement that LAMS International has joined the Moodle Partner network to help support combined Moodle/LAMS installations.

Sakai, the world's leading open source Collaboration and Learning Environment, and LAMS, the world's leading open source Learning Design system, today announced successful integration between the systems. This integration allows teachers and professors to benefit from Sakai's highly scalable learning platform combined with the unique "digital lesson planning" approach of LAMS.

I’m pleased to announce that the LMOS now has a home on Eduforge. This is an idea that really belongs to some of my colleagues at SUNY as much as it does to me, and I’ve been dying to give them the recognition and credit that they deserve. (Some of them are a little shy.) In particular, Patrick Masson and Bernie Durfee have been equal partners in working out the LMOS concept.

You can find the project’s vision and mission statements here [RTF]. We’re eager to hear your thoughts and suggestions.

Expect more announcements on this project in the coming days. We’re working on some partnerships that could be truly exciting.

Michael Penney, the Coordinator of the Courseware Development Center at California State University, Humboldt, sent me an email recently in response to my post on Moodle and "Enterprise Readiness." The note pointed me to this post on the Moodle discussion boards (again, just use the 'Guest' login if you don't already have an account.) I wish I had an official announcement from Athabasca to point to, but this seems an authentic enough interaction to constitute more than heresay and rumour, and thus seemed worthy of a post. If this is in fact as stated, then it would certainly be a feather in the cap for Moodle - Athabasca has long been consdered a leader in distance education in Canada, if not worldwide, and one would hope that their adoption of Moodle both sends positive signals about its qualities and that additional innovations will result as well. - SWL